Adventure Travel Guide to the Microbial World

Brushing your teeth is important to maintain proper dental hygiene. The mouth contains millions of bacteria that accumulate over time when brushing or flossing is not being regularly practiced. The accumulation of bacteria will result in a sticky film of bacteria adhering to the teeth known as a biofilm.

There is a rather wonderful episode of the hit BBC show ‘Doctor Who,’ where David Tennant’s rendition of The Doctor suggests that the Bees aren’t actually dying off, but they are an alien species leaving of their own accord. Alas, Erick et al. suggest, rather more empirically than The Doctor, that the former condition is the reality; the bees are dying off. (1) 

Many microbiologists will experiment with their own homebrewing or winemaking at some point, combining their two favorite past times- alcohol and microbes!  Recently there has been a shift in the larger brewing community, with even more attention to the microbes.  As microbiologists, we know microbes live everywhere, and can influence just about everything.  It comes as no surprise in the article posted by the blog, “Small Things Considered,” how microbes are starti

I went to Dr. Michael S. VanNieuwenhze’s seminar about the use of fluorescent D-amino acids (FDAAs) and their use in the study of bacterial cell division. Bacterial cells, unlike mammalian cells, have a cell wall in addition to the cell membrane. That cell wall contains a molecule called peptidoglycan (PG). Peptidoglycan is a polymer of sugars and amino acids. Short chains of amino acids (peptides) link the sugars together to form a mesh like barrier around the inner cell membranes of bacteria.

I have always found that host-parasite interactions are extremely fascinating, especially interactions in which parasites manipulate the host’s behavior. When I was reading about symbiotic relationships for my first assignment and when Dr. Hillyer mentioned Toxoplasma gondii in class, my curiosity for the protozoan increased. As Dr. Hillyer mentioned in class, T. gondii is a protozoan that has several different intermediate hosts with one definitive host.

On Monday, January 7, 2019, Dr. Patrick Secor from the University of Montana came to give a talk titled “Targeting bacteriophage to treat bacterial infections”. This is a novel approach towards treating bacterial infections. Normally, bacteriophages are thought of as a virus that harms bacteria and not humans. How would targeting bacteriophages help treat bacterial infections? Wouldn’t this be doing the opposite, because by killing bacteriophages you’re allowing for the bacteria to persist? Perhaps not as Dr.

Review of TWiM Episode 189, Nov. 15, 2018: Salmonella Bonjovi

Review of a blog post: “If You Give a Baby a Bath and Other Microbial Myths”

    Review of: Vangay P, et al. 2018. US Immigration Westernizes the Human Gut Microbiome. Cell. 175:962-972.  

A great discovery to start 2019- a wood stump full of microbes! Lots of amazing stuff in the video.